cheap meat dreams and acorns

Arts Birthday 2012 at Ace Art

2012-01-26T22:46:00.000-08:00

Andy Rudolph Light Bright interactive installation

Watching Aaron Zeghers installation

Playing with Lite Nite

Ward Weis video installation

Golden Boy

Jamez video performance

party people

Freya Olafson video

installation by Ken Gregory with Tracy Woodward

THE MOTHER SHIP HAS ARRIVED!

The Golden Boy's flame acts as a signal to intelligent beings from outer
space that have been in communication with members of the DIY community
in Winnipeg. These beings have been watching us until the politics became
so bad here in Canada that they have finally sent the Mothership to
relocate many of us to one of Saturn's moons: Enceladus. It's warmer there
and there is already a Sal's (somehow Burton Cummings got a hold of this
one before anyone could stop him - at least he made it a bar).Our DIY
Light Emitting Universal Transceiver Thingys are the link to the Golden
Boy and the Mothership.

The beauty of this system is Sam Katz doesn't know about it. He ignores
the Golden Boy (penis envy?). As an aside, there is a similar transceiver
on the dome of one of the Parliament buildings in Ottawa, but Harper and
his gang are all relocating to Mars (obviously, there will be more
Americans there and therefore a more conservative planet - they have no
bars). Once the probes go around alerting people that it is time to
relocate, we all enter into the Golden Boy itself and the Mother Ship
attaches to Golden boy lifting us all up up and away.

Art's Birthday 2012 DIY LED Hacking Workshop

2012-01-05T17:32:00.000-08:00

Video Pool Media Arts Open Lab Presents:
Art's Birthday 2012 DIY LED Hacking Workshop with Ken Gregory

when: Sunday, January 15, 2012, 12:00pm - 5:00 pm.
where: Video Pool Media Arts Centre @ 300-100 Arthur St.
cost: $2.00 - $5.00 donation to the media lab to cover parts.
no experience with electronics required. All levels of experience welcome.

LED == Light Emitting Diodes

The theme this year for Art's Birthday is Lite Nite. Light up the night with DIY LED based artworks. Learn how LEDs work, build simple circuits for use in Lite Nite based artworks, help others, collaborate on projects, hack hardware and have fun. Bring your creations to our Art's Birthday 2012 celebration on January 17 and light up the night!

Parts, tools and creativity included!

ooo la la......

2011-12-24T15:49:00.000-08:00

Puis-je présenter à vous Mademoiselle Coycet LaMort.

Dans performances avec La danse des Couteaux dans le Cirque des Objets. Mai 2012.

Kelowna

2011-11-19T12:11:00.000-08:00

I'm giving an artist talk in Kelowna at the Kelowna Art Gallery Monday November 21 at 6 pm.

Here's more info Kelowna Art Gallery

This is in collaboration with the University of British Columbia's Okanagan Campus

Sea of Sound Festival 2011 Edmonton

2011-11-14T10:29:00.000-08:00

My soundscape installation digital modification for new prairie soundscapes will be presented in an exhibition at the Sea of Sound Festival 2011 in Edmonton November 18, 19, 20.

What I did last summer.... amongst other things.

2011-11-04T14:25:00.000-07:00

I made ads in collaboration with these fine folks.
Central Canadian Centre for Performance

These were for their online project, Katalog.

Ad 1
Ad 2
Ad 3

Black Metal Mayhem October 27 2011

2011-10-25T22:48:00.000-07:00

Some pics from the set up of the installation at Atomic for the opening on October 27. Thanks very much Arlea, Sandee, Doug and Mike!

the whole thing . Photo courtesy of Milena at the Atomic Centre .

Arleas sign.

Sandees clown

Doug and Arlea making magic.

My devil

Guitars suspended and ready to make sound. Arlea's skullys, Sandees flames of Hell.

....meanwhile back at the lab....my kitchen

2011-09-25T13:44:00.001-07:00

So with a little advice from Sandee(studio mate and homie), I cast my candy project molds with Smooth-On's Crystal Clear Liquid Plastic. This experiment was to see if I could make fake lollies look like the real ones for long term display. So far, looking good after two trials.

September in Ontario roundup

2011-09-22T08:52:00.000-07:00

Opening of the exhibition at the Tree Museum.

On the way home.

Road Trip tip #204 Careful when you pull over to take care of urgent business.

Old Woman Bay - Lake Superior

Terrace Bay

Me

Lil Saffy takes a breather.

Items may Shift until October 27

2011-09-20T19:22:00.000-07:00

I'm home know but the exhibition is continuing until October 27. Here's what's being said so far.

Cottage Country Now

Toronto Star

Sun Suckers: Boreal version installation opening at the Tree Museum this weekend!

2011-09-10T09:34:00.001-07:00

The new version of my installation Gregory's Sun Suckers is opening this weekend!

Exhibition opening September 11 2011!

2011-09-01T14:43:00.000-07:00

Coming up at the Tree Museum near Gravenhurst Ontario.

Boreal version: Sun Suckers

2011-08-28T14:43:00.001-07:00

It's almost time to head out to Ontario to install this new work. There's just a bit of sound composition with the micro-controller programing to be done this week. Then prep the van, load up and roll!

Freshly glued waiting for the bases to be done.

Test set up in the lot at Atomic.

Close up of speaker assembly.

Katalog

2011-08-24T17:06:00.000-07:00

Under the "What I did Last Summer" umbrella is the creation of some photos with the people at Central Canadian Centre for Performance's online publication, Katalog.

WARNING! it's a big download because it's loaded with video.

KATALOG

ISSUE 3, VOLUME 1 - CALL TO ARMS: Shared Stage
Summer 2011

jaymez, Editor / Layout
Miss Lyndsay Ladobruk, Artistic Director / Videos
Christina Thompson, Staff Photographer
Selena Panchoo - Layout

Cantus Borealis Broadcast on CBC

2011-08-22T20:44:00.000-07:00

The Boreality Project continues with a broadcast and podcast on CBC radio.

" A few years ago, Prairie Fire Press teamed up with Manitoba Chamber Orchestra to launch a multidisciplinary arts project called Boreality. The first result of this collaboration is Cantus Borealis, an original composition for musicians and singers by Sid Robinovitch with words by Katherine Bitney and soundscape by Ken Gregory. The world premiere of Cantus Borealis occurred on April 13, 2011, performed by the MCO conducted by Scott Yoo and Winnipeg Soloists choir directed by Elroy Friesen. CBC Radio will broadcast this concert on Sunday, August 21 at 9:00 AM.

We invite you to tune in to CBC Radio 2 and listen to new music written to celebrate the boreal forest of Manitoba over all four seasons. You can also hear this work through CBC’s Concerts on Demand."

in the studio; Gregory's Sunsuckers: Boreal version

2011-08-15T21:54:00.000-07:00

I'm remodeling my sound installation Gregory's Sun Suckers for an outdoor exhibition at the Tree Museum near Gravenhurst Ontario. I'm in production mode making multiples of all the parts. Here's the previous post with more pictures.

---> more information

random garden

2011-08-07T07:11:00.001-07:00

9 lbs of heirloom tomatoes on one plant!

Nasturtium flowers about to burst open.

The first marigold flower

Watermelons!

I learned how to use concrete this week to make parts for my Sunsuckers installation(see previous post) and decided to make a stepping stone with the leftover concrete.

on my bench

2011-08-07T06:49:00.001-07:00

I am preparing a new version of my solar powered sound installation Gregory's Sunsuckers for an exhibition at the Tree Museum near Gravenhurst Ontario September 10 to October 27 2011. There's going to be 8 of these set up in a meadow at the site.

candy making research continues!

2011-08-01T19:11:00.000-07:00

So with the high humidity, high temperatures and almost windless day we(myself and Robert Pasternak) decided to spend the day in the kitchen cranking up the heat on some candy making research and development. The focus was on making some prototype lollies for Roberts
Jackson Pollicks project.

We had a great day fine tuning the process. Looking good!

on my bench

2011-07-30T21:12:00.001-07:00

Literally! benches!

random garden

2011-07-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

last update from Durham; they are on the way home!

2011-07-19T10:45:00.001-07:00

Click on the pictures to get a larger view.

random garden

2011-07-19T09:58:00.000-07:00

Lick My LEDS! update 2 from Durham

2011-07-07T08:19:00.000-07:00

Open Lab at Video Pool Media Arts

2011-07-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

Video Pool - Open Lab . . . . . . . . . Thursday July 7th

6:00-10pm Dropin / No Charge / Open to Video Pool Members and Non Members
(Call 801 5631 if you need to get swiped up to the third floor.)

On July 7th from 6:30pm - 10:00pm, Video Pool will be hosting the next amazing
Open Lab featuring the media stylings of Ken Gregory.

/ * + = / * + = / * Open What ? + = / * + = / * + = /

Open Lab is an event for all those interested in New Media Art and technology to
explore the vast resources of Video Pool's New Media Lab and share skills
(show and tell, anyone?) with like-minded explorers.

/ * + = / * + = / * Feature Presentations + = / * + = / * + = /

Ken Gregory

Introduction to the Stamp Micro-Controller with Ken Gregory
Ken will provide an introductory explanation of the Stamp micro-controller by
Parallax as well as show some of the projects that has has created using this chip.

the Oxberry

Andrew Milne will give tour of the WFG Oxberry control system project and the
work that has been completed so far. Tour will include a brief explanation of digital
parallel to serial conversions using a shift register.

/ * + = / * + = / * You Are Welcome + = / * + = / * + = /

We strongly encourage anyone who has an interest in making Media Art and is willing
to explore the world that lies beyond single channel video. All ranges of experience
are welcome. Please bring a project to work on if you have one to bring or, if all you
have are questions, bring those too and we'll do our best.
Cookies and Root-beer are provided.

/ * + = / * + = / * Format + = / * + = / * + = /

The format for these Open Labs will be to provide a space where people can bring work
that they are engaged in and work on it collaboratively (or just with some other people
and brainpower around) or come just as they are and explore some labs or projects that
are set up ripe for modification and tinkering.

If you are interested come by and do some work and play or just chat and say Hi.

Your happy h'andy' hosts - Andy Rudolf and Andy Milne

Update from Durham

2011-06-30T09:21:00.000-07:00

As any SUV drivin Dad with a two year old knows, hard candy lollypops melt into a sticky gooey mess. When stuck to the carpet under the seat for several weeks before being discovered, not very welcoming. I'm not that Dad. I didn't think my candy installation would melt away as much as it did. And it looks amazing. The sticky flavored and colored sugar is slowly adding a whole new dimension to Lick My LEDs!
Philly Markowitz, at the Durham Art Gallery is kindly taking care of my installation during the exhibition. Her reports and photos have been a pleasure to receive as I fretted about it all from 2400 kms away. This week I made and shipped off a whole new batch of lollies to replace the melted ones. Two more weeks to go.

Circus of Objects

2011-06-28T16:34:00.000-07:00

I don't think I have ever been on stage by myself doing a solo act quite like this. I talked Grant into letting me do it. It was the unveiling of a brand new project. I stumbled over some words, I switched up what I was going to say only minutes before I went on, I made a couple mistakes, I drew blood, the audience laughed, I laughed, the tunes sounded good to my ears. I have a lot more work to do.

more info here----> Jaw Harp Project

My set list.

Shortnin Bread pure Americana
Birthday Song for Art my own tune
Uncontrollable Urge, by Devo

Leif Norman took some pictures. Here's some more. ----> The Circus of Objects .

Jaw Harp project

2011-06-23T08:06:00.001-07:00

Tonight I go out on a limb with a brand new project. I'll be performing some music/sound pieces on the jaw harp at The Circus of Objects. A production of an experimental theatre and performance art group Adhere and Deny.

I've been working on this for about three years. I was introduced to the idea of exploring this ancient musical instrument while working on some music and sound for a short film by Danishka Esterhazy. The Red Hood had a Ukrainian theme weaved into the story line. We shot some scenes at Lower Fort Garry which has a cabin much like many Ukrainian immigrants lived in back in the early 20th Century. One of the artifacts on display was an old jaw harp, a drymba in the Ukrainan language. They wouldn't let me touch it but I jumped into research and found some workable instruments from Austria at the local music stores. A year later I started purchasing instruments over the webbernet and started to look for them where ever I go. I have a doromb from Hungary, several vargan from Krygzstan, several morchanga's from Nepal, and a dan moi from Vietnam.

You can find an example of my playing here------> Birthday Song for Art .

melting.....

2011-06-12T12:22:00.000-07:00

Lick My LEDs!

2011-06-10T06:32:00.001-07:00

Announcing Candy Computing version .01

Lectric Lollies

flavors; raspberry, lemon, peppermint, licorice(anise)

packaging design by Robert Pasternak

electronics, Basic Stamp 1, Light Emitting Diodes, LED driver

pulse circuit by Norman White

progress in Durham

2011-06-07T12:05:00.001-07:00

Debugged my circuits and got everything going towards the final step, casting some new lollies and installing them. Lickin good!

The local folks have been very generous to us. Durham is a small town almost rural but just enough city to make us feel at home.

Return to the Funny Farm

2011-06-04T20:31:00.001-07:00

We did a day trip out to the Funny Farm to visit Laura , Laura's mom and Gordon . What a great day! They are responsible for Electric Eclectics , a festival of experimental music and sound art.

Candy Computing version .01 - Raspberry

2011-06-01T16:27:00.000-07:00

The Lectric Lollies are coming together! The packaging arrived today from the Nakfactorium .

Scrapyard guitars workshop on YouTube

2011-06-01T09:04:00.000-07:00

The now sounds. The past and the future. New noise out of old stuff.

Common Pulse Residency progress

2011-06-01T08:50:00.000-07:00

scrapyard guitars workshop Durham

2011-05-29T11:45:00.000-07:00

The workshop was a blast. Everyone built some fun diddley bows and crazy sound machines.

bloggidy blog and webbernetting

2011-05-25T18:32:00.000-07:00

There's a blog that the Durham Art Gallery keeps up with a a few photos and texts regarding what we are up too.

Blog

There's a separate festival website too.

Common Pulse Media Art Festival

Some of us participating artists maintain websites too.

Laura Kikauka

Jessica Field

Karo Szmit

Andrew McPherson

And me Cheap Meat Dreams and Acorns

progress in Durham

2011-05-25T18:07:00.000-07:00

I've got the basic circuit and programming working for my Candy Computing ver. .01 project.

And a new candy mold! It's made with Smooth-On products.

I'm already working on the Scrapyard Guitars , workshop gathering stuff to make one and two string guitars with. I hope lots of people show up.

Durham Art Gallery

2011-05-22T11:00:00.001-07:00

We are all set up at the Durham Art Gallery. So far we have been getting settled in and checking out the town of Durham. We have the good fortune of being here on the same weekend as Norman White's annual weekender at the Normill, an old seed mill converted to a sort of arts center and residence. There's lots of interesting people here to meet and hang out with.

Lick My LEDs!

2011-05-19T20:59:00.000-07:00

That's the name of my new installation which I am preparing for the Durham Art Gallery in Ontario. The Common Pulse Media Arts Festival will be the weekend of June 10-12. I'll be doing a three week residency as part of the festival. The concept of the project is Candy Computing ver .01. The basic form is Lectric Lollies. I'm combining my recent interest in hard candy making, microcontrollers and electronics. My friend Robert Pasternak is helping out with some cool packaging.

I'm a pretty quiet guy....

2011-04-17T16:39:00.000-07:00

until someone sticks a microphone in front of me and starts asking questions about my art practice. A couple of weeks ago I did an interview for (NAISA) New Adventures in Sound Art's radio show on CKLN 88.1 FM in Toronto. You can listen to me go on and on about my art work and listen to some tracks on this podcast on Sound Cloud here.-------> Ken's interview Fortunately they edited it down to under an hour in duration.

Cantus Borealis

2011-03-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

The completion of the second leg of the Boreality Project is only two weeks away. I just dropped off the final master tapes for my contribution to Sid Robinovitch's concert work for the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra.

The series starts with a concert in Hollow Water on April 11, followed by another concert in Pine Falls on April 12 and then finally a concert at Westminster Church in Winnipeg on April 13.

click for more information ----> details

Mandy Malazdrewich's photography is here --->borealityphoto.ca

Here's a photo I took during our first trip to Hollow Water.

more candy!

2011-03-28T15:33:00.000-07:00

My friend Robert Pasternak came by to work on some candy making explorations with me last weekend.

Robert's website
Robert's blog

We had a good day looking through recipes, talking about comics and making some really nice looking candy.

Prairie Scene

2011-03-11T22:08:00.000-08:00

I finished the light/sound box for my project going to Ottawa.

title: digital modification for new prairie soundscapes

Quelle dérive: Le possible et le réel de Winnipeg
April 27 - May 6, 2011

more candy!

2011-03-04T22:12:00.000-08:00

on my bench continued......

2011-03-03T13:43:00.000-08:00

In addition to the robot project, I've been rocking the studio with a variety of other projects.

A sound/light box to house a soundscape to be presented at the Prairiescene festival in Ottawa. April 27 - May 6 Quelle dérive: Le possible et le réel de Winnipeg More information soon.

A custom audio CD case for a project being sent to Montreal. It's made of salvaged parts and wood from an old gramophone.

A new exploration in candy making. The following pic depicts my first homemade molds and the almost successful making of some peppermint flavored candy nuts and gears.

on my bench.. circus performer themed automaton

2011-02-07T17:02:00.000-08:00

Three weeks ago it was a hat. Now after tons of work it's starting to look like my the vision of what it should be in my head. I updated my woodworking skills learning how to make wooden gear mechanisms
woodgears.ca and found that the look of the wood parts added a whole new element visually that took it outside normal robot design looks. Riffing off that I built a new body and leg. In the end there will be six legs, a little more electronics and some visual elements added to create the character. I'm super happy with the way it's starting to look.

January 29 in Edmonton

2011-01-23T09:05:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 17, 2011

MILE ZERO DANCE presents “BUST” an inter-disciplinary evening of performance and arts!

BUST is curated by Edmonton's original sound twister Shawn Pinchbeck. Shawn Pinchbeck is an internationally known sound and multimedia artist who has been active in Edmonton putting together diverse evenings of performance and festivals of electronic art and music since the mid-1980's. For BUST, he puts on his curator hat and has lovingly assembled a few favorite local and Canadian acts.

BUST is a collection of diverse cutting edge performances and visual art
featuring: sound art, electronic music, circuit bending, dance, performance art, visual art, VJ'ing, interactivity, and installation art.

On the program is sound performances by Vector Rails, Robot Scout (St. John's), Shawn Pinchbeck and Eryn Tempest, Ken Gregory (Winnipeg) with dance by Celine Cattoën-Gilbert, Sonja Myllymaki and Karen Porkka, Zebra Pulse, Mixtur with dance by Gerry Morita, and Wayne DeFehr. There's also visuals by film projectionist Patrick Arès-Pilon, prints by Caitlin Richards and Eryn Tempest, and the Canadian premiere of the computer interactive sound, video and dance installation The Bather by Chris Driedzic (St. John's), Susanna Hood (Toronto) and Shawn Pinchbeck.

This event should not be missed for lovers of cutting edge sound performance, dance and visual art. It's sure to continue the smashing success of Mile Zero Dance's Salon Series; making a fun and diverse evening with some of Edmonton's grooviest up and coming and established artists. See you there!

Bust

Saturday, January 29, 8pm
The Artery (9535 – Jasper Avenue)
Tickets at the door - $10/members, $15/non-members
Media Contact: Shawn Pinchbeck at info@spinchbeck.com or 780-488-9838

Art's Birthday 2011 a few pics

2011-01-16T15:48:00.000-08:00

My hat for the Hat making contest! I was an organizer so couldn't officially win but as an instigator of the idea I had to make a hat. The skull is animated by a couple servos and a microcontroller. The head moves around and bobbles on a spring. The jaw moves up and down and there is one LED eye.

Every birthday party should have cake! Our lovely host Miss Lizzy Lala serves it up!

DJ Rob Volar provided awesome tunes all evening!

Jaymez provided awesome visuals all night too.

Every birthday needs presents! Kunstradio.at in Vienna Austria organizes a pool of presents for Art every year. AB2011

Mine is here. Birthday Song

Arts Birthday 2011!

2011-01-13T11:34:00.001-08:00

It's that time of the year! A time to celebrate all that Art gives to us. A great way to start the year.

"This year our theme is Holus Bolus, meaning all together, all at once;
whole, in one big lump. Wear your own whimsical handmade hat to win big prizes (we have jurors, it's a serious thing), or make one at the party, at the Table of Imaginative Materials.

Art's Birthday External Network
Video Pool

Where: Lo Pub & Bistro- 330 Kennedy (Corner of Ellice and Kennedy in the New HI Downtowner Hostel)
When: Saturday January 15
$10.00, or $8.00 with costume
doors open 8pm

Video Pools Top Ten 2010
recent work from Video Pool begins promptly 8:30pm

Festivities continue till we drop:
*MC for the evening Miss Lizzy La La
*VJing by Jaymez and DJing by Rob Vilar
*Skype kiosk to exchange birthday greetings with revelers at East
Street Arts, Leeds, UK
*Art fun at the Table of Imaginative Material
*Best Made Hat Contest and prizes
so so much more...

back to the Peg

2010-11-15T17:58:00.000-08:00

I'm home now. I hit the ground running with reality smacking me upside the head. No time for wistful recollections of almost a dream art tour. The water heater was dead, the starter and the battery in the van were toast, there was a stack of mail(bills) to look after, crates and other shipping details to take care of and the garden needed a lot of attention. The icy fingers of winter are already reaching through the cracks in the window and door frames. The tour is a distant memory already.

I thought that two months away from the garden would have me missing the fall harvest. I left in late August.. Surprisingly there was still lots of food to harvest from the backyard. I've been happily making some great meals with the herbs, potatoes, beets and such. There's tomatoes and lemongrass in the freezer for deep winter dinner treats and dried herbs for tea. We brought in some herbs to winter inside and they are perking up with new shoots and a delightful green contrast to the grayish pre-snow look of everything.

"well oiled little contraption"

2010-10-23T18:31:00.000-07:00

After a bumpy start up when I arrived 4 weeks ago, we've ground everything down to a fine edge and are finely in a nice groove. We've got 5 more performances to go. I'm ready to go home though. Two months away from home is a long time.

Here's a round up of what's being said about our show so far.

Janet Smith, Georgia Straight

Culture Seen, Westender

Kevin Griffin, Vancouver Sun

kayeoneats.blogspot.com

Plank Magazine

Shadow Machine in Vancouver

2010-10-19T14:26:00.000-07:00

wind coil sound flow in San Jose after show interweb round up

2010-09-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

Rich Lem's Flickr pics

bbchin's set on Fkickr

review by Julia Bradshaw

Brian Kane

The Exhibitionist

Start Silver Creek preview

Rudy Ruckers Blog

bikes will save the world!

2010-09-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

opening night in San Jose

2010-09-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

Check out these photos from Garnet Hertz. ------> opening night

South Hall progress

2010-09-16T13:48:00.000-07:00

Build Your Own World continues at South Hall. These pictures were taken a couple of days ago as we were preparing to move over to the San Jose City Hall Rotunda. Tonight everything opens with a festival opening party outside our venue.

ready to go

2010-09-15T23:56:00.000-07:00

We're all done installing at the Rotunda. The festival opens tomorrow. We've been meeting some really great people since we got here. I'm pretty tired at the moment. There's lot's of pictures to come.

starksilvercreek.com

Rudy came by to see what we were doing and posted about the festival on his blog.
Rudy Rucker
Check out his webzine! Flurb.

California road trip

2010-09-13T12:15:00.000-07:00

We took most of Sunday off to drive up California's coastal highway to San Fransisco and north of there the Muir Woods. The day was overcast and cool. On the way back I took a few wrong ramps off the freeway and got us sort of lost in SF. Which was fine because we found a great place to eat and got to experience driving the hills of SF. Chris wound up the GPS unit and we found our way back to San Jose.

Progress in South Hall

Davenport

Half Moon Bay

Golden Gate Bridge

Muir Woods

Thai in San Fransisco

Return to San Jose

2010-09-08T22:22:00.001-07:00

We're working hard getting everything done for the festival. It's been a really good experience so far with only a few hitches.

ZERO1's themed Build You Own World festival and exhibition September 16 - 19 in San Jose.

Out of the Garage Into the World

wind coil sound flow at 01SJ Biennial September 4 - 19 2010.

Our neighbors Gift Horse and Empire Drive -in

Chris builds our own table saw with the circular saw and our work bench.

Our off cut bowling game prototype.

on my bench

2010-08-24T17:38:00.000-07:00

Whoa... I was sick this weekend past but in a feverish blast of creativity and hacking I built a custom feedback sound machine for use in the Shadow Machine performances in Vancouver. Inspired by a bench top lathe, the hand wound electromagnetic coils I've been working with, one string scrapyard guitars and the ideas behind the performance project, I was able to create something fun and new. The tool box acts as a frame and a resonator. The depth of the feedback is controlled by a potentiometer on the front and the harmonics are controlled by a worm gear driven coil transducer above the guitar string. Another coil is an audio pickup and there is a small amplifier circuit to help induce the feedback.

The aftermath.

August 2010 news

2010-08-23T09:04:00.000-07:00

wind coil sound flow at 01SJ Biennial September 4 - 19 2010.

I will be presenting my kinetic sound sculpture wind coil sound flow at the San Jose City Hall Rotunda as part of ZERO1's themed Build You Own World festival and exhibition September 16 - 19 at San Jose California. In addition I will be participating in the Out of the Garage Into the World program (a part of the festival)September 4 -15 with building the installation components at the South Hall, a large convention space open to the public as part of the exhibition.

Curator Steve Dietz describes the festival here---> podcast .

Shadow Machine performance in Vancouver. September 23- October 31

After rocking the festival in San Jose, I'll be zipping back to Vancouver B.C to participate in 5 weeks of workshopping, rehearsals and performances with Peter Courtemanche, Carol Sawyer and Alvin Erasga Tolentino.

for more info -----> co.erasga.dance.

electronics for lunch

2010-08-17T09:28:00.000-07:00

My favorite electronics project boxes are second hand Tupperware/Ziploc/whatever soft plastic food storage containers.

The prototpye is mostly done. We'll rebuild the whole thing in Vancouver and add some fun details. Now it's disassembled and ready for crating.

Nothing leaves the studio without extensive testing. Chris takes the prototype for a ride.

this just in........

2010-08-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

To read the tiny fuzzy small print click on the picture to enlarge it.

colors other than green

2010-08-09T19:39:00.000-07:00

Even though there is a ton of artwork to do, the backyard is pretty high in our minds here with daily discoveries, maintenance, amazement, harvesting and observations. There's lots of flowers blooming, food to eat, some drama and lots of hanging out. The addition of the gazebo which is sort of our front room now was a stroke of genius by Sandee. It fits perfectly on the deck. We can sit outside rain, shine or mosquito mobbed which we do often.
Some things happen and disappear pretty fast. Like the appearance of a morning glory flower that we both almost missed and we didn't think to photograph. I don't even know if a photograph would do it justice. It was a wondrous thing to gaze upon if only for a few moments.

Random wildflowers.
We got these packets of multiple species of plant seeds from Giant Tiger in the Spring and now we don't know what we have growing or not. Those splashes of yellow in the background are several of the many marigolds that we have all over. Part of our natural pesticide program.

One sunflower is now 10 feet tall!

Purple basil...yum!

Lovely geraniums.

Tomitillos, a very beautiful plant to observe. We got these from our friends Kate and Andris who last year infected me with this gardening bug. Their garden is a great inspiration and they amongst others have been very generous.

Our living room.

One of the many poppies we have all over too. The local children keep stealing them from where they poke out of the fence in the front yard.

in the studio

2010-08-03T13:45:00.000-07:00

In addition to all the work with the garden, I've been spending a lot of time in the studio getting things ready for upcoming shows in San Jose and Vancouver. There's lots to do. With the final drop off of crate contents to be prepared for shipping to San Jose, I shifted from work on wind coil sound flow to the preparation of devices for the Shadow Machine in Vancouver.

I finally wired up this hacked mobility scooter so it can be controlled by remote control. This forms the base of a 'wandering' workbench which will be used during the performance. So far it works well but now it's time to sort out all the wiring and mechanics for the final version.

It's easy for me to be distracted by an interesting challenge. We learned how to crack the combination for the safe that was left here by the previous tenants. With Tim Hunkin's lecture about the fine art of safe cracking in the back of my mind, we carefully worked out the 6 numbers to the combinations and the opening procedures for the two exterior door locks. What made it relatively easy was the fact that the door was already open and we could look inside the tumbler enclosure to see what was happening with the mechanism. I found a 3D animation of how tumbler based combination locks work too.

wheels, poppies and getting airborne

2010-07-14T10:15:00.000-07:00

The new studio space is working out really well. Lots of room. Depicted is a prototype for a remote control workbench I'm building for the Shadow Machine project in Vancouver.

New Wheels! I found a nice 2000 GMC Safari van to haul my art stuff around. Including runs to the floodway to work on my kite project.

Our garden is surprising us everyday. We don't need no stinkin nature channel. (said in may best Treasure of the Sierra Madre bandito voice) It's all going on in our backyard. Squirrels, cats, raccoons, and insects. An adventure and drama daily under the soil, on top and in the air. Along with the lettuce we've been eating beet greens, peas, beans, various herbs and other things. Soon we will have tomatoes! We have some plants flowering including our previously mentioned mystery plant. Now identified as an orange day lily. There's still most of the summer for growing so as a rookie gardner I'm feeling pretty good about our efforts.

more yard

2010-06-17T09:45:00.000-07:00

Prototype bench I made for the wind coil sound flow installation at the 2010 01SJ Biennial Build You Own World exhibition in San Jose. The basic idea is to build some places to sit for folks that want to check out the installation for a period of time. The design is based on the angles, materials and construction methods used to make the installation.
This bench is going into the back yard garden.

crazier.......

2010-06-16T15:31:00.001-07:00

Hanging planter I made of branches we cut off the trees.

Lettuce, peas, rosemary, coriander, mint, lemon grass and basil with ladybug house in background. Planters made of salvaged materials.

Potatoes, beans, pumpkins and tomatoes. This was the site of an old shed.

Planters made with salvaged materials, the cruddy dirt and rubble we dug out of the ground where the old shed was and some stones and broken bricks we dug up.

First generation Akai CD player my brother bought in 1984 or so. Doesn't work. Couldn't throw it out. A new kind of a audio art?

Bean tripod and beans starting to climb it. Made with some old pipes that I found in the basement and the recycled lumber from my installation last Fall.

The view from the deck. It's only the middle of June and things are looking beautiful already. In the foreground are more planters I made with salvaged lumber and pails. We planted lettuce, coriander, mint, garlic and onions. As well we moved some mystery plants from the fence line that someone planted a long time ago. I built a raised bed by the fence so I thought it would be good to preserve them so we moved them into one of the containers. They are looking really good so far. One of them is going to flower. We think it may be some kind of iris. Those round chrome things hanging on the fence are moon hubcaps from the 50's, more of my collection of things I can't throw away.

Ladybug house Sandee and I made to house the ladybugs we are planning to get soon. They will eat the aphids that are everywhere. Part of our no pesticides program.

Rusty parts I dug up. The yard is like an archeological dig sometimes with all the stuff we are finding just below the surface.

Our crazy garden.

2010-05-30T19:48:00.000-07:00

Last year I got a late start with gardening but managed to get the yard cleaned up and learn a few things with a few plants. This year I decided to amp it up and with Sandee , who moved in upstairs back in February, keen on doing some gardening too, we started putting a lot of effort into getting it going. We wanted to keep it pesticide free, as low cost as possible and have lots of vegetables to eat. And have fun doing it all.

Back in early April when it was really hot I started a bunch of boxes built with reclaimed materials and a 5 cubic yard load of new soil. We both started seeds inside and outside and started hitting up our friends and the interweb for info. I kept building boxes, raised beds and containers until the soil ran out. We even spread some of the soil around the yard. The last few weeks has been filled with seeding, planting and organizing everything.

Here's some pictures that Sandee took of our garden. We already have lettuce to eat! The heavy rain this weekend busted up some of the seedlings after these pictures were taken. We have faith that most things will recover. If not, we have time to re-do some things. The backyard is going to be an awesome place to hang out in this summer!

Vancouver/Shadow Machine

2010-05-19T09:23:00.000-07:00

Return to the Western Front. The Shadow Machine in progress. Artists at work.

Vancouver

2010-05-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

I'm back in Vancouver working on the Shadow Machine project with Peter, Alvin and Carol. I arrived early so I could get some work done on my back tattoo at Sanitary Electric. So far I've been walking around spending money eating out, working with Peter on some Shadow Machine audio, checking out all the gardens and marveling at the wonderfully landscaped yards. I started building a garden in my back yard at home and am very inspired.

Vancouver: where pinups, bikes and beer easily go together at Central City Brewing Company.

Evapotranspiration is the name of the process in which trees and plants move water from the ground up to the leaves where it evaporates into the atmosphere. A large part of our worlds processing of sun and water to provide the basics of life for everything and everyone. And part of the beginning of a new series of research explorations for me.

The ghost, the dredge, Dawson City and me.

2010-04-30T17:53:00.000-07:00

Back in January while I was in Dawson City Yukon, Dan Sokolowski director of the Dawson City Film Festival and part of KIAC challenged me to participate in the One Minute Film Challenge. A project where participants shoot a one minute film with the Super 8 film format with no editing or just in-camera editing. I pointed out that I'm more of any audio artist and that I could record a one minute track in an audio format while I was still there. I also said he could bill it as a movie without a picture. Everyone at the screening would be sitting in the dark anyway so they could conjure up images in their head based on what they were hearing. Dan was cool with all that.

I went back to the residency house studio and started improvising with a jaw harp, my voice and the scrap yard guitar I built to show the 3D lab students at SOVA. Then hit record on the H2 and laid out some tracks live to tape as they used to say. Actually I recorded several versions of the same thing as I tried to squeeze it down to one minute long. When I got home I lifted out a choice but rough track and shipped it via the long wires to Dan.

After listening to it, I titled it The Dredge. I usually let my intuition guide what I do as an artist and sort of think that after spending two weeks immersed in Dawson City in the dead cold of winter, reading about the Gold Rush there, visiting the #4 Dredge preserved up on Bonanza Creek, experiencing a visit from the ghost of Macaulay Residence amongst other things, I captured what was going on inside me with my recording.

The screening of all these one minute productions is on May 1 at the ODD Fellows Hall at 8 pm in Dawson City.

bbzzzzt sNap BOOM! Walla Walla WAlla

2010-02-19T20:41:00.000-08:00

My interests and skills in sound recording, music, noise making and so on have often been co-opted in the service of sound image correspondence for short and sometimes feature length films. Here's my resume.
Now on the inter-web for all to see are some of the films I worked on. I'm particularly proud of the sound and music I did on these two. I'm responsible for everything you hear. Music, foley sounds, location recording, sound effects, mixing and so on.

Enjoy!

The Snow Queen by Danishka Esterhazy

and The Claw by Bruce Claydon.

I'll try and dig up some of the others.

Last days in Dawson City

2010-02-02T13:13:00.000-08:00

Bombay Peggy's

Front St. building from behind.

There is still gold to be found in the valleys and mountain streams.

My host, the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture

Home of the Snake Pit.

Scrapyard guitars workshop at SOVA

2010-01-27T13:58:00.000-08:00

I gave a workshop at School of Visual Art in Dawson City with the folks from the first year 3D class. The basic idea is to get the students to make guitars(or something like that) out of discarded materials. In three hours I introduced acoustic coupling, some basic mechanics and musical ideas to the group. It was really fun. Everyone finished their project. There was some great visual ideas, unusual juxtapositions and noise.

Dawson City Yukon

2010-01-25T23:36:00.001-08:00

The view from the plane as we came in to land.

Dawson City

Barnacle Bob pounds em out at The Snake Pit for Happy Hour on Fridays.

Bonanza Creek.

#4 Dredge preserved and land locked up Bonanza Creek turned into a historic site by Parks Canada.

Evan, David, Colin and myself.

The Road to El Dorado

2010-01-19T12:43:00.000-08:00

That's the title of my audio work submitted to The 8 Fest in Toronto. The festival screenings are coming up at the end of January 2010. When I was invited to participate back in October I had no idea I would be invited to Dawson City to participate in a residency at the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture.

Milada, one of The 8 Fest coordinators gave me the theme of 'Golden' of which I could interpret in any way I wanted. So I racked my brain and did some googling and settled on gold fever, evils of capitalism, and popular culture representations of same. I did a mash up with sound sampled from the Price is Right, Goldfinger(the 007 Bond movie soundstrack), The Wizard of Oz and the cartoon The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. A fun romp using my soundscape making software.

To make a long story short, I was invited to Dawson City after I delivered the 'The Road to El Dorado'. Dawson City Yukon is the heart of the Klondike Gold Rush, an event that brought thousands of gold seekers to the Yukon starting around 1896. The history here is deep with stories of fortunes won and lost all related directly to gold.

Did I conjure up this trip with the creation of the art work?

Return to San Jose....I'm in the Yukon now

2010-01-18T19:07:00.000-08:00

I arrived in Dawson City Yukon this morning. I think I'm channeling the spirit of the stampeders that travelled from California to get here during the Klondike Gold Rush. More on that later. This is what happened last week.

Back in the summer of 2006, I went to San Jose California to take in the ISEA 2006 symposium and the beginnings of a new festival, 01 San Jose. I took in as much as I could of the city and all the festival and symposium activity seceretly hoping I would someday go back and participate. This is what I posted back then. blog entry
And now I returned to San Jose and yes! I will be installing a scaled up in size version of my sound installation wind coil sound flow at the 2010 01SJ Biennial: Build You Own World.

Unbelievably, I went ice skating at a skating rink installed under the palm trees in front of the San Jose Museum of Art. I think the last time I skated was 1981 or so.

The venue for wind coil sound flow will be the interior of the Rotunda at the new city hall.

January heating up

2010-01-06T08:51:00.000-08:00

In order to beat the January doom/blues, I like to make myself as busy as possible at this time of the year. The heat is on! Besides a pile of paper work and the total reorganizing of my studio, I have the following to keep me going until February.

i'll be heading to San Jose California for a couple of days to participate in meetings and check out the venue for my future participation in the 2010 01 San Jose Biennial with the theme Build Your Own World. I'm really looking forward and quite exited to be building my work wind coil sound flow as part of Out of the Garage. I can really relate to the themes and everything having to do with this so far has been very good.

On January 16 I'll be helping out with this. Video Pool will be participating in the international celebration of Art's Birthday

The next morning I'll be jumping on a plane and heading to the sub-arctic climes of the Yukon where I'll be participating in the residency program at the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture.

At the end of the month my audio piece 'The Road to El Dorado' will be paired up as a soundtrack for a short film at The 8 Fest in Toronto.

report from Vancouver

2009-11-11T23:04:00.000-08:00

I'm home now. Last week I was in Vancouver working on an update of a performance, the Shadow Machine, originally mounted in 2000 and slated to be performed in the Fall of 2010. I'm working with a great bunch of people; Carol Sawyer, Peter Courtemanche, and Alvin Erasga Tolentino . We spent the week reviewing documentation, remembering everything we did before, participating in rehearsals, coming up with new ideas and discussing how to fund it.
I walked around and looked at the ever changing cityscape. At coffee one day with a friend, I mentioned how coming to Vancouver was like putting on an old familiar sweater, I've been doing projects there since 1990. I almost moved there back in 2005. I have my favorite haunts and things to look forward to. Unbelievably I crossed paths with a lot of people I haven't seen or corresponded with for a long time at these places. I hope it still fits me.

Scrapyard guitars workshop

2009-10-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

The workshop I gave at the Graffiti Gallery as part of the send and receive festival was a lot of fun. I demonstrated my One String Bass Slide Guitar made with a hockey stick, my washtub bass and several other one and two string guitars. Ten Diddley Bows were made and decorated by 6 kids, 2 teenagers and a couple of adults. At the end we jammed and ate pizza. Good times.

Fall trip- Boreality Project

2009-10-21T10:32:00.001-07:00

My last scheduled trip with the Boreality crew happened at the the beginning of October. We travelled back to the Bisset area and hiked around looking at the forest and the Canadian Shield with a couple of botanists. Then we headed south a little bit to Nutimik Lake to look at the petroforms at Bannock Point and the ones deep in the forest at Tie Creek. We hiked into the forest with Ron Bell, the Keeper of the Petroforms, who gave us tons of info about the forest, the petroforms and the ongoing spiritual significance of everything. A very good week.

wind coil sound flow at U of W

2009-10-21T10:12:00.001-07:00

The exhibition continues until October 31. Everything is going very well. There's a great article about it in the current Uptown Magazine by Sandee Moore. I'm already getting ready to take it down on November 1. The Gallery 1CO3 blog has tons more photos. And check out Gallery 1CO3's facehook page for more photos. Big thanks to Glen and Chris for all the construction/installation help, Milena for all the curatorial work, and Jennifer for keeping things running.

Steve Dietz's photos here--> wind coil sound flow

installation continues at Gallery 1CO3

2009-09-29T18:45:00.000-07:00

wind coil sound flow exhibition prep

2009-09-28T19:46:00.001-07:00

It seems like a long time ago(a year?) that I hastily sketched the following drawing to somehow visualize my idea for a new artwork installation only minutes from mailing my proposal off. Now called wind coil sound flow, I'm preparing it for exhibition for the second time here in Winnipeg. The exhibition opens on Thursday October 1 at Gallery 1C03 at the University of Winnipeg. Checkout their blog and on facialhook . This production is co-sponsored by Video Pool and send and receive. More pictures soon.

And here's another one string slide guitar for the Scrap Yard Guitars workshop at the Graffiti Gallery coming up October 14.

late August early September roundup

2009-09-11T14:12:00.000-07:00

It's the end of the summer and things have been crazy getting ready for Fall. I did a whole lot of paperwork, started working on my exhibition coming up in October, organized some workshops, and have been pounding out a lot of stuff in the studio.

I started it late, but after I built the kitchen scraps composter(out of an old gramophone cabinet), I started a garden. I built a raised bed to start growing some vegetables. As soon as I mentioned that to my Mom and some friends I had a ton of advice and a bunch of donations to get me started. I've never done any gardening before so was surprised at how interesting it all is. The biggest thing was was how generous gardening people are. My Mom gave me a rain catching barrel and some herbs, some friends gave me a bunch of bedding plants and cuttings and when I was there, their neighbor did too! My raised bed was overflowing with plants and I had to dig another garden patch else where in the yard to accommodate all the bedding plant donations. The cabbages and the herbs went into old pails. So everything is looking good. Some of the fun and drama(who needs TV when you are war with slugs) is with the observations of all the micro organisms, the identification of plants in the yard which my Mom says are weeds, and all the little jobs regarding taking care of everything.

The September Harvest moon Sept 5. I had a fire and watched it come up. Nice.

My studio work is heating up with several projects. Pictured below are some photos of the research work I am doing for a Scrap Yard Guitars workshop I am preparing at the Graffiti Gallery as part of the Send and Receive Festival in October. Check out this old entry for more of this research. One String Bass Slide Guitar

more from Toronto

2009-08-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

Report from Toronto

2009-08-07T08:53:00.000-07:00

I landed on Monday and jumped right into activities at NAISA. Most of the week was dedicated to a hand wound coil workshop. I showed some coils I, explained the basic theory of electro-magnetism and got everyone that wanted to build a simple solinoid, a pick-up and an output device. The end of the workshop included the demo of a super hacked electronic bow playing a one stringed instrument made out of a broken microphone stand. One of the participants made a coil that could pick up electro-magnetic fields radiating from electronic devices like hand drills, electric wiring, cell phones and computers. Very cool sounds.

New Adventures in Sound Art

2009-08-01T10:23:00.000-07:00

Amongst all the other things I have been up to are the preparations to participate in a residency in Toronto with the NAISA folks August 4-9. I'll be giving a workshop on how to build electro-magnetic coils for sound art based applications, running the Kite Lab, giving an artist talk on wind coil sound flow at the Toronto Electroacoustic Symposium 2009 , and hopefully giving a performance, Against the Wind. I write hopefully because it's an outdoor event and very dependent on the weather conditions. Never the less , weather permitting, I will be out at Sir Winston Churchill Park almost daily running the Kite Lab , so folks will be able to catch Against the Wind in some form or another.

Report from Jack Pine

2009-08-01T09:43:00.000-07:00

The Boreality Project continued with our Summer trip to the forest. We had planned to go to Bloodvein Reserve on the east side of Lake Winnipeg but when we got to the the ferry crossing on the west side of the lake, the ferry couldn' t run due to the super choppy water conditions. We had to re-jig our plan rather than head back to Winnipeg. So we turned back and went in search of the Jack Pine Lodge near Pine Dock. We eventually found it, checked in and figured out what we were doing for the week. There was a lot of rain, grey skies, mosquitos, and windy conditions, but we managed to fill out the week with hikes into the bush, lots of discussion, making fires, wild strawberry picking and eating together. I spent a lot of time trying to find interesting forest sound elements to record. The rain soaked days I spent reviewing and editing the Spring trip recordings and a jam session we had at Sids place. I also worked on some soundscape ideas using some elements from the Spring sessions. A very good week.

more Fisher River

2009-06-10T13:04:00.000-07:00

We're home now. Last week we(the Boreality Project) spent the week in Fisher River . We visited with folks, spent some time hiking around Fisher Bay, had a moose meat and bannock lunch cooked at the Creeks on an open fire, participated in a sacred pipe ceremony, and generally looked around the area as part of our research into the Boreal forest. The folks out there were very friendly and supportive of what were are doing.

Fisher River

2009-06-01T20:57:00.000-07:00

We've just arrived at Fisher River for another week of research for the Boreality Project . We'll be visiting folks, hiking, observing, giving presentations and such all week.

As the twilight fades the frogs and birds are striking up a symphony of sounds outside my hotel room window.

more from Montreal

2009-04-13T07:11:00.001-07:00

Montreal

2009-04-04T10:55:00.001-07:00

wind coil sound flow in Montreal!

2009-03-25T14:34:00.000-07:00

I'm just getting ready to head out to Montreal to install my new work at articule in conjunction with the Elektra festival. I'm pretty excited as this is a brand new work. It's a result of 5 years and ongoing research on kite based sound instruments. Another really great part of this project is the support and help from my friends Darcy Bunio and Stephen Hanson. Stephen gave me a bunch of salvaged piano wire to play with. And Darcy , an accomplished luthier, built some custom resonators for the project.

prototype documentation from the Art's Birthday presentation on January 17 2009 here.

Kite Lab documentation here.

resource documentation here.

Here's a sound example from the prototype run through wind coil sound flow

Here's the official blurb.

title: wind coil sound flow
descripton: electro-mechanical sound installation

For his exhibition at articule, Ken Gregory will build an acoustic electro-mechanical system that poetically reproduces the processes involved in operating an Aeolian Kite Instrument in the field, a wind instrument based on an Aeolian harp. The kite's towline is acoustically coupled to a resonator. The resonator amplifies the wind induced vibrations of the towline and resonates harmonically. A large one stringed guitar played by the wind. Receiving the audio recordings from this outdoor instrument, his electro-magnetic sculpture in the gallery not only becomes a poetic and kinetic representation of a sound speaker, but also mirrors the different components of the Aeolian Kite Instrument used to capture the wind’s voice.

Electro Lounge

2009-02-23T06:38:00.000-08:00

This is what I am up to this week amongst other things.

February 25 from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Free.
Video Pool Studio.
Electrolounge is a forum for local artists to “show and tell” each other about their practice in a casual forum mediated by artist Ken Gregory. Artists are invited to show new works, works in progress, documentation, stories, experiences, examples of cool art, experiments, curatorial projects – basically anything and everything that inspires your electronic art practice. Participants are also encouraged to exchange knowledge about techniques and theoretical approaches.

This event is free. Participants are encouraged to register in advance and to bring artwork, inspiration and snacks to share. Please contact vptech [at] videopool.org to register.

Escape

2009-02-17T20:38:00.000-08:00

My video untitled has been included in a touring package curated by J.J. Kegan McFadden in collaboration with Video Pool. For more information check out the Escape blog.

Winnipeg Sound Machine

2009-01-17T10:12:00.000-08:00

An audio archive of the live sound as performed in mp3 format is available here ---> audio tracks<------

Saturday January 17 11:00 - 17:00 -6 GMT

Sun Suckers at Vague Terrain

2009-01-13T08:37:00.000-08:00

Vague Terrain: Device Art has been launched and features video documentation of my work Sun Suckers. The article is by Rob Cruikshank a long time member of the Toronto electronic art community, and features some other great artists; Brad Borevitz, Darsha Hewitt, Erin Gee, irXx, Jessica Fields, Nicholas Steadman, Martin Wisniowski and Peter Fleming.